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In fact, it isn't. It's the Armageddon Engine. :PConsider Deskari. The Usher of the Apocalypse.
What is it to usher? Isn't it to precede, to be a forerunner, or harbinger?
Isn't the tarrasque known as the ?
Oh! Gosh, I'm embarrassed. Golarion is safe then! Yay!
Well, color me paranoid and intrigued. I feel like this whole train of through would make for an interesting NPC for a module or a AP that serves no other purpose but to link all these unusual and seemingly inconsequential events together in a Beautiful Mind type of way and the players walk into his room full of news paper clippings, occult writings, and scattered numbers, formula, and symbols that do not match any known alphabet. Just imagine the paranoia the gullible and impressionable players will have, especially if they have to make a will save vs some sort of insanity effect all this accumulated lore in one place can inflict upon the mind. This is why I love these threads, so many great ideas.
P.S. just sprinkle in some Mothman into this, just for extra crazy vibe ;D!
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I was about to say this is more like a Dark*Matter game thing, where Paizo throws some seeds around and see which ones we allow to foster and grow. Sometimes disparate seeds fill the field, and they get to say, "yes, we are geniuses."
Surprisingly, the Paizo staffers usually cop to this plot without taking genius credit.
So I'd less say that the locations of the Eye, Worldwound, and our third Mystery Spot (where the laws of nature are turned upside down down down), whether the Pit of Gormuz or something less known, are less an intentional "I've been plotting this concept since 1993" stuff than, "oh look, the fans came up with a cool horrible doom triangle based off some plot threads we left hanging out".
So if we see the Golarion Doom Triangle pop up in a book, let's all pat ourselves on the back (especially Jim Groves for neglecting sleep to mull on this).
And yes, the crazy room full of esoteric notes connected with red string is the best. :D
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I think the Pit of Gormuz might be too far off into the east to fit neatly into this sort of scheme.
(And the Pit is vastly older than the Eye and the Wound.)
But that doesn't mean that there isn't some, as yet unrevealed, third thing, to make a 'triangle of doom,' or, off the map in other directions *even more* such things, to make, instead of a triangle, a *pentacle* of doom.
I think the Pit of Gormuz might be too far off into the east to fit neatly into this sort of scheme.
(And the Pit is vastly older than the Eye and the Wound.)
But that doesn't mean that there isn't some, as yet unrevealed, third thing, to make a 'triangle of doom,' or, off the map in other directions *even more* such things, to make, instead of a triangle, a *pentacle* of doom.
...ICOSAHEDRON OF DOOM. Wrapping itself around the planet. WHO IS ROLLING GOLARION? AND WHICH FACE IS THE 1?
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I was gonna do that in a game once. Had five or six locations that were geographically distant but could make a constellation/pattern of absolute evil when you drew invisible lines connecting 'em. Then there was the center of the pattern, which was in for a bad, bad time.
I think our third Mystery Spot (which I only suggested as the PoG because it's kinda close geographically and has an ineffable evil in it) might be off-map and possibly undiscovered yet, but would both be about 100 years old, dangerous, and growing. Worldwound keeps trying to get bigger, halted by the poor, poor Mendevian Crusade and the wardstones. The Eye grows and shrinks (maybe matching the Worldwound's expansion?), but mostly seems to be growing, IIRC, albeit slowly.
Putting this third spot underwater might help explain why we haven't heard of it yet, and also lets us play with another of the four elements (DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, MCs- no wait, not those ones). We have earth (Worldwound), Air (the Eye), and with this third, water.
Once they do their thing... fire.
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Looking at the map, and assuming that the Worldwound and Eye of Bagels are indeed two sides of a triangle, the third would either be to the west of Qadira (pretty much in a Pit of Gormuz-ly direction, but probably not quite so far off the map), *or* up to the north east of Hermea and partway to Arcadia, which, IIRC, is almost smack-dab in the middle of what used to be old Azlant...
Hermea might even be pretty darn close to the center of that particular triangle.
If the triangle goes easterly instead, off the map beyond Qadira, the center point would be in Cheliax or Andoran, based on my rough eyeballing of it...
Andoran (or the Andoran / Chelish border) might be a more interesting centerpoint for an apocalyptic 'triangle of evil' 'volcano erupting' sort of mythic game, than Hermea, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere, adventure-wise.
Well done Set!
Also, we could have two separate conspiracies.
Elaine Cunningham's Dark Tapestry (featuring Channa-ti) has generally been considered a Dominion of the Black teaser
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Looking at the map, and assuming that the Worldwound and Eye of Bagels are indeed two sides of a triangle, the third would either be to the west of Qadira (pretty much in a Pit of Gormuz-ly direction, but probably not quite so far off the map), *or* up to the north east of Hermea and partway to Arcadia, which, IIRC, is almost smack-dab in the middle of what used to be old Azlant...
Hermea might even be pretty darn close to the center of that particular triangle.
If the triangle goes easterly instead, off the map beyond Qadira, the center point would be in Cheliax or Andoran, based on my rough eyeballing of it...
Andoran (or the Andoran / Chelish border) might be a more interesting centerpoint for an apocalyptic 'triangle of evil' 'volcano erupting' sort of mythic game, than Hermea, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere, adventure-wise.
Isger has seen some weirdness recently. ;)
Here's a newly started thread with some interesting thoughts, particularly for those (like me) who are suggesting that Deskari might be aiming for divine ascension ...
Ooh! This is a fun thread!
Carry on!
--C.
Dot!
Jim, just noticed another interesting tidbit that passed me by when I first read it. It's from Shattered Star: Asylum Stone.
I'll spoiler it, even though it doesn't really spoil much of anything:
Could be coincidental, could be nothing, just eerie mystique to add to the strangeness of the location.
Then again, it was written by James Sutter.
Jim, just noticed another interesting tidbit that passed me by when I first read it. It's from Shattered Star: Asylum Stone.
I'll spoiler it, even though it doesn't really spoil much of anything:
Very interesting.... I missed that. Thank you!
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Alright Golarion Detectives.. I think we got a case here.
Somebody identifying themselves as 'guest' posted this in Paizo Chat last night. I ignored it, because I thought it was some goobledegook. Like those people that sign in for five seconds and post rickroll YouTube links.
But it's interesting:
Since our master left, we have been reading other texts. Please consider those most holy to our new order:
Skull of Mashaag 247:1:1 --- The Bone Lands in a Spiral 43: 13: 7 ---The Order of Numbers 9: 22: 8 Our Master's Book 192:4:4 --- The Bone Lands in a Spiral 63: 8: 10 --- The Book of Joy 19: 19: 4 --- The Birth of Light and Truth 139:18:3 --- Skull of Mashaag 247:1:1 ---The Skull of Mashaag 224: 39: 1 ---The Order of Numbers 8: 31: 9 --- The Order of Numbers15:2:4 --- The Eight Scrolls 117: 34: 1 --- The Skull of Mashaag 339: 12: 10 --- The Skull of Mashaag 238:35: 7 --- The Birth of Light and Truth162: 36: 3 --- The Skull of Mashaag 224: 39: 1
This appears to be a book code.
All the titles mean something. Each are some sort of holy book, text, or device through which holy scripture is delivered.
The numbers are important. Forum poster Zylphryx had a good observation. He suggested a book code that follows the format: page, line and word.. But I have been unable to get it to work right.
At first I thought it might be the Inner Sea World Guide, but the page count is too low. So I reckon it must be the Core. But checking the first printing has yielding nothing.
I am freelancing right now, but this was interesting enough that I wanted to add it to my own personal Conspiracy Thread. (And I can Necro it. :P )
This would not be the first time that hints have been concealed somewhere, as evidenced by the riddle poem posted by James Jacobs that foreshadowed Reign of Winter.
Take a stab at it folks and I'll try later tonight.
Just at a glance, I'm wondering if perhaps it might refer to more than one book? IE, the title is an allusion to the actual book, with the rest referring to page, line, word.
(Puzzling over it. Didn't realize the titles were actual fictional titles until I just googled Mashaag. Still, perhaps they are allusions. Lamashtu was detailed in Shattered Star, yes? Maybe in those volumes. Will work at it some more.)
I could be a rl reference to the gods book that's coming out next month.
OK I think that Cthulhudrew is on to something. I starts with. since our master left which I think may reference Sean K Reynolds leaving. backing the book code is trickier I am thinking Skull of Mushaag is the inner sea guide. Our masters book could be GameMaster's guide, the birth of light and truth could be the core book. Just a theory working on it right now
So, for the record:
The Skull of Mashaag - Lamashtu
The Bones Land[strike]s[/strike] in a Spiral - Pharasma
The Order of Numbers - Abadar
Our Master's Book - ???
The Book of Joy - Calistria
The Book of Light and Truth - Sarenrae
The Eight Scrolls - Desna? (Sources vary as to whether that should be Seven or Eight)
"Since our master left" = Sean K. Reynolds?
"Our Master's Book" = Gods and Magic?
(Hm. Page, line, word doesn't work for that, though, as there aren't enough pages. Unless the page/line/word notion isn't correct.)
EDIT: LOL! I see The Smitter had the same thought as me. I should have read his post before replying!
Pattern-wise, Skull of Mashaag has two pairs in repetition above- 247:1:1 and 224:39:1.
My first inclination was that Smitten's suggestion these are all in relation to the Inner Sea Gods upcoming book was correct, and that the names of the books would correspond to the Deity writeups as a result (ie, Pharasma's entry would cover pages referenced by the Bone Lands hints).
Checking out the spreads, though, I'm not sure that's the case. While many "texts" that are referenced seem to fall within a few pages (if that's the leading number) of one another when they repeat: Order of Numbers, for instance, seemingly covers pp. 8-15; Book of Light and Truth 139-162. Bone Lands pp. 43-63 (which seems kind of a large spread). Skull of Mashaag seemingly covers pp. 224-339, though.
I'm going to go back to the notion that these are in fact references to many different texts, rather than one book.
Oh, and thanks, Jim, because now I'm going to be puzzling over this for days at least.
Six out of the seven books are definitely the names of existing deities' holy texts. I can't find "Our Master's Book" offhand, but it wouldn't surprise me if it followed the pattern.
Possibly "our master left" might be referring to Aroden? Which would make "Our Master's Book" the "History and Future of Humanity"?
And then there's the question of what "order" would consider that collection of books, all together, "most holy." It's a pretty wide spread of alignments and viewpoints, while not a comprehensive picture of the Big Twenty gods. What do these religions have in common?
Also, a master "leaving" vaguely suggests Lissala to me rather than Aroden.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I couldn't seem to connect to the Paizo forum suddenly when attempting to respond to this thread.
<_< >_>
In any case, what I was going to say is something the Lissala comment made me think of. There are seven texts mentioned. I can't quite get the seven deities they are associated with to fit either the seven virtues or vices, but- hmmm.
(Somewhere, somebody's having a chuckle at this thread right now.)
If it is a book code and the numbers refer to page : line : word the skull of Mushaag has to be the core book because the page number are to high for any other book. as to the rest I am not sure. I believe this is the right track though I well work on it some more tomorrow.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I couldn't seem to connect to the Paizo forum suddenly when attempting to respond to this thread.
<_< >_>
In any case, what I was going to say is something the Lissala comment made me think of. There are seven texts mentioned. I can't quite get the seven deities they are associated with to fit either the seven virtues or vices, but- hmmm.
(Somewhere, somebody's having a chuckle at this thread right now.)
I'd been thinking pretty much the same thing, actually... (about the seven and the chuckle. :) )
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This appears to be a book code.
All the titles mean something. Each are some sort of holy book, text, or device through which holy scripture is delivered.
The numbers are important. Forum poster Zylphryx had a good observation. He suggested a book code that follows the format: page, line and word.. But I have been unable to get it to work right.
It does look like a book cypher, since all the books are in-game holy books for the various gods and the Inner Sea Gods hardcover is coming out soon. With a book cypher you have to assume everyone has the same book (holy books are great for this, since they are commonly found and reproducing them exactly tends to be a matter of faith for people. Just about guaranteed the same word will appear in the same place in multiple copies). Obviously the "meta" book is the Inner Sea Gods book, since I doubt Paizo will print a reproduction of Abadar's holy book.
Skull of Mashaag 247:1:1
The Bone Lands in a Spiral 43: 13: 7
The Order of Numbers 9: 22: 8
Our Master's Book 192:4:4
The Bone Lands in a Spiral 63: 8: 10
The Book of Joy 19: 19: 4
The Birth of Light and Truth 139:18:3
Skull of Mashaag 247:1:1
The Skull of Mashaag 224: 39: 1
The Order of Numbers 8: 31: 9
The Order of Numbers 15:2:4
The Eight Scrolls 117: 34: 1
The Skull of Mashaag 339: 12: 10
The Skull of Mashaag 238:35: 7
The Birth of Light and Truth 162: 36: 3
The Skull of Mashaag 224: 39: 1
The first part is a holy book for one of the gods. So this refers to the chapter in Inner Sea Gods. I've added zeroes to even out the rest of the numbers.
LAM 247: 01: 01
PHA 043: 13: 07
ABA 009: 22: 08
??? 192: 04: 04
PHA 063: 08: 10
CAL 019: 19: 04
SAR 139: 18: 03
LAM 247: 01: 01
LAM 224: 39: 01
ABA 008: 31: 09
ABA 015: 02: 04
DES 117: 34: 01
LAM 339: 12: 10
LAM 238: 35: 07
SAR 162: 36: 03
LAM 224: 39: 01
The first number ranges from 8 - 339. A very wide range.
The second ranges from 1-39.
The third ranges from 1-10.
The first number, being the largest, is probably the starting word. So "Skull of Mashaag 247" means "Go to the 247th word of the Lamashtu chapter."
The second and third numbers are a bit trickier, since we don't know how the chapters in Inner Sea Gods are set up. Thirty-nine is a reasonable ballpark paragraph length, and 10 or less seems like a good ballpark for word length.
My guess (and this is a total shot in the dark) is that each of those words will be the first word in a paragraph. That would make the second number the specific word within that paragraph, and the third number a reference to the specific letter in that word.
That would make "The Order of Numbers 9: 22: 8" a code meaning "The eight letter of the twenty-second word of the paragraph starting at the ninth word of the Abadar chapter".
Which would make the solution a single word, or sequence of words (omit spaces & punctuation), that is sixteen characters long.
Normally I would assume that this is just gibberish by an overachieving troll. BUT Jim Groves mentioned that James Jacobs posted a riddle poem that foreshadowed Reign of Winter (I haven't seen it, anyone have a link?) so I figured it was at least worth a crack.
There's basically no way to solve it until Inner Sea Gods comes out, though. At that point it should be easy to crack. That's the problem with book cyphers. If you don't know the book, it's basically impossible. But once you have the book cracking becomes super easy.
Quick geography note:
So, the thoughts of a third "storm" on Golarion were interesting, so I took out a map of the Inner Sea region and started plotting. Yes, we know the two spots on the surface that correspond to the equilateral triangle, and don't know of anything special at either one.
But why does the storm have to be on the surface?
If the third vertex were to be inside Golarion, where would it be? I started with the midpoint between the two (located in the Menador Mountains between Cheliax and Nidal, which I will call the Midpoint) and figure that it corresponds to the Midnight Mountains in Orv. I don't know of any huge storm there. But the vertex doesn't have to be perpendicular to the surface. If you carve out that arc, you find that the third vertex would lie (on the surface) along a line perpendicular to the line connecting the Eye of Abendego and the Worldwound.
I know of no storms that would make this work. However, one interesting fact about the perpendicular is that it connects the Spire of Nex to the Mordant Spire. Also, these two locations are equidistant to the Midpoint.
Incidentally, 3000 years before the death of Aroden means the Bretheda storms started in 1606 AR. I know of nothing that happened on Golarion at that time.
Over in the "What Comes After Iron Gods" thread, a poster named Seth Parsons speculated that perhaps the next AP might have something to do with the Harbingers of Fate.
That got me back to thinking about my idea that "our master" refers to Aroden, and that this message might have something to do with that organization.
Over in the "What Comes After Iron Gods" thread, a poster named Seth Parsons speculated that perhaps the next AP might have something to do with the Harbingers of Fate.
That got me back to thinking about my idea that "our master" refers to Aroden, and that this message might have something to do with that organization.
That makes a lot of sense. The folks over this thread have been making some strides too.
By all accounts, people have figured it out. I have also been given the answer, in a private message from a forum poster who was offering it as a solution to the puzzle and looking to me for more information. (And I checked their answer myself against the 5th edition PDF of the Core Rules. It does NOT require Inner Sea Gods, you just need an update copy or PDF of the Core rules. They figured out the answer but confronted the wrong person.)
It aint me. ;) Folks can accuse me all day long and it still won't make it true.
I AM nosy and curious though. But I don't have the time to orchestrate something like this. Although, it does remind me of the secret messages buried in the 6th chapter of every AP (down where the copyright and printing information is listed in tiny, tiny print). Maybe an in-house staff game to get the fans excited?
Though if it is, I got to admit that would make me really, really sad, because I have been the only freelancer who has really loved the Harbingers, since all the way back in 2010 when I used them in RPG Superstar.
Also, since Bretheda orbits the sun once every 30 years, it has been exactly 100 revolutions of Bretheda from the Eyes of the Ancients and the Eye of Abendego.
Well. Thanks to the other thread, I've decoded the message.
If I vanish from the boards, pray for me.
Looking at the map, and assuming that the Worldwound and Eye of Bagels are indeed two sides of a triangle, the third would either be to the west of Qadira (pretty much in a Pit of Gormuz-ly direction, but probably not quite so far off the map), *or* up to the north east of Hermea and partway to Arcadia, which, IIRC, is almost smack-dab in the middle of what used to be old Azlant...
Hermea might even be pretty darn close to the center of that particular triangle.
If the triangle goes easterly instead, off the map beyond Qadira, the center point would be in Cheliax or Andoran, based on my rough eyeballing of it...
Andoran (or the Andoran / Chelish border) might be a more interesting centerpoint for an apocalyptic 'triangle of evil' 'volcano erupting' sort of mythic game, than Hermea, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere, adventure-wise.
Cheliax as a focal point would be interesting as under Asmodean control, perhaps implying that He was involved in setting up the triangle so as to create a doom vortex He could later be in position to harness and chain.
This is awesome! I don't have time to dive into it--all them products to ship--but if whoever posted the code wants to private message me their identity and the answer, I'm very curious and will keep their secret. :D
Share?
Just an FYI, the secret fun stuff connected to this post has started up already. The organizers are letting stragglers in, but this is a final notice. Solve the puzzle soon OR ELSE.
Well, crud, now I feel like I'm missing out. I gave up on trying to decipher the identity of the poster once I had a misfire and sent a PM to the wrong person. :(
The pituitary gland is supposed to be the physical manifestation of the brow chakra which is often called the third eye. It is the chakra of Perception (especially supernatural one).
Reminds me of the movie From Beyond, in which some gland in the brain (pituitary?) can be stimulated to become a third eye, capable of seeing into a dimension just adjacent to our own, but, once you can see into that dimension, the creatures there can also see you, and that's when the screaming starts.
Pineal gland, not pituitary.
This thread is one of the reasons I love these boards.
So, something else from Distant Worlds that I got to thinking about tonight:
It is mentioned that the giant supercomputer that the Aballonians built- Epoch- can only communicate in strange language that sounds like prophecy but is indecipherable to the Aballonian logic.
What if it isn't just their logic that is keeping it from effectively communicating, but the death of prophecy itself that turned the computer into a babbling AI? Aroden's death/sacrifice and the loss of prophecy makes all of its communications nothing more than garbage in/garbage out?